pc: Daniel Southard
Southeast of Rain (东南有雨) is an experimental/electro-acoustic duo formed by Sophia Shen and Lemon Guo, two composers and sound artists who work in the interstices of multiple genres. They create otherworldly soundscapes with the shimmering textures of Sophia Shen’s pipa (a Chinese string instrument), evocative cores of Lemon Guo’s vocals, and immersive electronics whimsically processed out of field recordings. Their work travels freely yet subtly between intimate acoustic improvisations, ambient atmospheres, and elaborate sonic explorations with epic arcs while paying homage to the affinity with nature found in traditional Chinese music.
Originally from Fujian, a southeastern province in China, and currently based respectively in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, Sophia and Lemon began their first musical collaboration in the summer of 2013, when they traveled to Alaska to capture soundscapes with the EcoSono Institute. They recorded orcas and humpback whales underwater with hydrophones, witnessed an earth-shattering glacier calving event, and then composed new ecoacoustic works with the field recordings. These works were featured in the EcoSono Alaska Concert at Alaska Pacific University in 2013, the EcoSono Environmental Music And Sound Art Festival in 2017, and the Computer Music Journal of the MIT Press in 2018. Since then, they have collaborated on many more field recording projects and concert tours in China, Japan, and the United States. The duo is committed to an interdisciplinary approach, frequently collaborating with dancers, filmmakers, and visual artists from different cultures and backgrounds, guided by a deep sensitivity to sounds and their environments.
“Weaving magic from the mundane” (Songlines Magazine), Southeast of Rain released their self-produced debut album 42 Days in January 2021 to critical acclaim. It was hailed as “a collaborative gem and a highlight among this year’s new releases... inspires a sort of breathless introspection–a meditation on the perception of time and space in sound” (I Care If You Listen). 42 Days has been featured on BBC Radio 3, BBC Sound, NTS Radio, Montez Press Radio, Framework Radio, International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF), Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), Broadway World, Tone Glow, New York Music Daily, amongst others.
Members
pc: Kevin Corcoran
Sophia Shen (pipa)
Born in Zhangzhou, a small city in southeast China, Sophia Shen is a composer, sound artist, pipa performer and improviser currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her music often bridges the divide between cultures and breaks the boundaries between subjects. She incorporates pipa in many of her compositions, improvisations and performances, acoustically and electronically, as an artistic expression to facilitate cross-cultural and interdisciplinary dialogues. Her original composition works have been performed at major music festivals such as San Francisco Tape Music Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, SF Performances PIVOT Festival, EcoSono Environmental Music and Sound Art Festival, SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States), Other Minds Festival and Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival. As a composer, she has been commissioned by many distinguished ensembles and organizations including the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Wild Projects Production, William Winant Percussion Group, Thingamajigs and Gamelan Encinal.
Sophia holds an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College where she also studied composition and improvisation. She received a BA degree in Music with High Distinction and a BA degree in German from the University of Virginia.
pc: Mengtai Zhang
Lemon Guo (vocal)
Yingjia (Lemon) Guo is a vocalist, composer, and interdisciplinary sound artist from China. Drawn to the visceral and evocative nature of the voice, she creates voice-based performances and installations that connect people to current environmental and cultural reality. Juxtaposing traditional and experimental styles of singing with field recordings and electronics, Lemon’s music mirrors her hybrid backgrounds. Born in a coastal city in southeast China, Lemon grew up as a science nerd singing Chinese folk music. At the age of 18, she moved to the US and studied social psychology before shifting focus to music composition. In recent years, she also spent time recording whales in Alaska and learning ancient village tunes from the Kam song masters in southwest China. Lemon has performed and exhibited her work internationally, in institutions such as Rubin Museum of Art, Ambient Church, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Headlands Center for the Arts, EcoSono Festival of Environmental Music and Sound Art (United States), Resonance FM (England), International Computer Music Conference (Korea), Chronus Arts Center, Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (China), and OTO Asobi B-side (Japan). Currently based in New York, where she completed an MFA in Sound Art from Columbia University, she is building her interdisciplinary ensemble and finds inspiration through collaborating with people from all over the world.